The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1887-11-25

surely emDraceu IN thlS olu rellc OF
colonial days
The hour was about the middle of the
afternoon. Mrs. Willis stood in the
doorway, looking down the street. She
was anxious and troubled. BY the
careful reckoning that her husband
had made before bidding her adieu,
after making all allowances for deten-
tons and unfavOrable winds, he should
have returned week ago. The APP
pearance of the bark was familiar to
her, and often she came thus To the
door and scanned the ocean beyond the
cape, hoping to be gladdcned by the
sight of the home-rcturning Nellie. Her
daughter went daily to the post-oflice;
she had gone there now, and Mrs. Will
lis paused at the door and waited, as
she saw her slowly approaching.
"She has no letter." thought the
wife, with sigh. "She does not walk
fast"
A group of battered and supcranu-
ated sailors, who loved to come up here
and take observations Of the bay from
a neighboring sand-hill while smoking
their pipes, observed Mrs. Willis at the
door and Helen coming back from the
town. ~.
"Them folks are gcttln' ANXIOUS"
one observed.
Bout the bark?'
There was II grunt Of assent.
"Well, they needn't. A week or
two weeks over time amt nothing on
av'y'ge to the gulf.
The oracle Of the party, an old, one
eyed fellow. whose face looked like Il
thickly-knottcd section of oak-bark,
pulled vigorously for Il moment, and
then announced,i in n mysterious way:
IL don't agree with them as says
Willis. Not the pleasant young woman
comm up the street yonder-God
bless her bright eyes!-but her name
sake that we saw round the point there
so finely in August. / don't say much,
but think good deal; and l says to
myself that time, says l: Goodbye to
Aaron Willis and his ship "
A profound silence followed this re-
mark. No one was ever prcsumptuOus
enough TO ask the oracle the reasons
for his opinions; but all knew that he
would not fail to state them as soon as
they had made a sufficient impression.
IL says to Aaron himself" he con-
tinued. in a moment, 1.-The day before
he sailed - says /: Captain Aaron,
you're bold man to go to sea now,
with all the spooks of old buccanecr
Lobdell and his crew going along with
you
co. says he, with a laugh-and I
tell We, it makes me shiver to hear any
man laugh at a spook!-says he:
there's enough of EN- roamin' round
the old garnet and down cellar, I'm
afraid. but they'll never follow me.
They'll stay right there. Fact is, l
have notion that the old frecbootcrs
got so in love while they were alive,
that they can't quit it now, and lie
quiet in their graves, as good Christian
corpses orter.
"Did he say Mdt?" one of the awe
struck crowd asked.
"Ayc, he did! I'd never had chance
to talk with him so free before that,
about the awful bad name the old
place has got. But he told me all
about it,"
What was it, Uncle Potcrr' half-a-
dozen eagerly asked.
The old man shook his head with
an air and an aspect of superhuman
wisdom.
40, don't say what he told me. !
amt one o your talkin' kind. Only |
do say that the things he told me was
worse'n any thing we ever thought
about the place
What was it like, uncle?'
'Wcll, say l think too much Of
Mis- Willis and her pretty da'ter, to
put ailoat any more stories about that
house. I've known Cap'in Willis nigh
on thirty year, and ] sailed with him
when some of you didn't know u bin
nacie from a bow-anchor He's sail
or through and through, but dre'ful
queer in some of his shorc7ways. He
knows, reckon, what for he keeps his
women-folks IN such spook-rookery
"a that-or near to it. don't find no
fault; but do know that Peter Null
Inns wouldn't pass one night under
that roof for the worth of all the freight
under the matches of that big three
master out there in the bay
But you might just hint what he
said"
What's the use O hintin'e You
know now just rs we'll ~ could tell